1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner hopper for supplying a toner to a developer of an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art of the Invention
Where heretofore a toner cartridge 1 is mounted on a toner conveying section 4 to use, as shown in FIG. 1, a toner 33 in the toner cartridge 1 drops naturally and goes into a casing 34 of the toner conveying section 4. The toner 33 in the casing 34 is conveyed to a developer side from an exit 35 by blades 5 rotating in the arrow direction. When the toner 33 has been fed to the developer side to cause the toner 33 in the casing 34 to become less in quantity, the toner 33 drops from the toner cartridge 1 and is supplemented in the casing 34.
At this point, if the toner 33 adheres to and remains on the inner wall of the toner cartridge 1, or the toner 33 does not drop smoothly, a tapping bar 30 provided outside the toner cartridge 1 is allowed to be driven by a spiral drive section (not shown) with a pivot shaft 32 as a center, whereby the outer wall of the toner cartridge 1 is tapped by a head 31 of the tapping bar 30 to give a vibration, making easy the drop of the toner 33.
However, the method of tapping the outer wall of the toner cartridge 1 to give a vibration as described above has problems that efficiency is not good, the toner 33 does not drop completely, and noise develops. Furthermore, when the toner 33 is blocked by the weight thereof, the toner 33 lumps increasingly.